In an Aug. 27 column in Cowboy State Daily, Wyoming Senate President Ogden Driskill and Speaker of the House Albert Sommers falsely brag that they filled up the state’s coffers during the 2023 legislative session.
There are two important things they don’t tell you. First, they claim $65 million per year in revenue generated while they created over $100 million per year in new spending. This is a perfect example of their use of “Biden” math. Using $65 million to spend over $100 million annually on pet projects that grow government is not conservative, and it is not sustainable.
Second, the state’s “overflowing” lock box is full of your tax dollars, $500 million of which was extracted from you via exorbitant property tax increases.
This money doesn’t belong to Driskill, Sommers or the elitists that have been running this state for decades. It belongs to you. They refused to allow the Wyoming Freedom Caucus to put a cap on how fast your taxes increase.
Driskill and Sommers go on to thank Wyoming’s legacy industries for funding our K-12 education system while dumping your tax dollars into funds that seek to destroy those very industries. The “savings” bragged of were placed into anti-Wyoming funds that abide by “Environmental, Social and Governance” policies, Blackrock chief among them.
The social engineers at the helm of these institutions use woke boardroom policies to destroy Wyoming’s legacy revenue streams — and thanks to Driskill and Sommers, we are all paying them to do so.
On top of that, Speaker Sommers did everything he could to block legislation intended to protect our state from ESG investing. How can Driskill and Sommers thank Wyoming’s legacy industries for footing the education bill while using your money to pay Larry Fink to kill those industries?
They don’t realize, or maybe they do, that ESG policies will dry up our tax base, eventually leading to an income tax on Wyoming citizens.
Before the leadership of a supermajority Republican legislature complains about every Make America Great Again Republican voting against their pork filled budget, they should ask themselves why every Democrat voted for their budget.
But then again, if you are a Liz Cheney Republican, you never stop to ask why Adam Schiff is voting with you.
Thankfully, the people of Wyoming know better how to save and spend their own money. They know better than to believe the platitudes of the politicians who have “reigned” in Cheyenne for decades.
John Bear, Chairman
Wyoming Freedom Caucus
